Present day office planning increasingly looks to undercarpet placement of wiring for power distribution and telephone and digital data communication. In the digital data communication aspect, the art has accommodated digital signal transmission through the use of a jacketed coaxial cable of type having a center or signal conductor in circumscribing electrical insulation and further interiorly of a conductive shield (shield) having a drain wire electrically continuous therewith. In a product made commercially available by the assignee of the subject application, a coaxial cable is housed in resilient jacketing from which the cable is readily strippable for termination. The jacketing is in truncated pyramid cross-section, i.e., having sides tapering from a flat top part to the wider base seated on the floor of the installation. The jacketing accordingly protects the delicate coaxial cable and has outline suitable for aesthetic disposition beneath overlying carpeting.
When the coaxial cable is to be terminated, same is stripped from the jacketing, and the jacketing forwardly of the stripped cable is discarded, leaving the jacketing with an end face from which the center conductor and the drain wire protrude. Termination is then effected, i.e., the center conductor and drain wire are electrically connected directly to the signal input and ground terminals of a suitable user apparatus or to an intermediate connector, e.g., a pedestal to which the input cable of user apparatus may be releasably connected. Strain relief is desirably afforded, as by applying restraint to the cable jacketing.
In the case of terminating the cable with an intermediate connector, the drain wire has heretofore been terminated through connector structure discretely receiving same and limitations have accordingly arisen where cable drain wire diameter has exceeded the dimensions of such discretely dimensioned connector structure.